What one great idea resonates deeper in the soul than any other...that we are free to choose. Next to life itself, the power to choose is your greatest gift.

I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.

To achieve goals you've never achieved before, you need to start doing things you've never done before.

The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.

Integrity is conforming reality to our words - in other words, keeping promises and fulfilling expectations.

Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.

Make small commitments and keep them. Be a light, not a judge. Be a model, not a critic. Be a part of the solution, not the problem.

Our ultimate freedom is the right and power to decide how anybody or anything outside ourselves will affect us.

When you really listen to another person from their point of view, and reflect back to them that understanding, it's like giving them emotional oxygen.

Improve relationships with others by assuming that they can hear everything you say about them

Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.

Every bride is beautiful. It’s like newborn babies or puppies. They can’t help it.

The kitchen door, painted red from the day Naomi moved in, and a geranium, also red, outside on the stoop, gave the whole area a feeling of whimsy.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger more complex and more violent. It takes a touch of genius-and a lot of courage-to move in the opposite direction.

The table is a meeting place, a gathering ground, the source of sustenance and nourishment, festivity, safety, and satisfaction. A person cooking is a person giving: Even the simplest food is a gift.

Fanaticism and bigotry require any food but common sense and reason, which would break the charm of those spellbound fanatics.

Emotional intelligence grows through perception. Look around at your present situation and observe it through the level of feeling.

A movie is not a book. If the source material is a book, you cannot be too respectful of the book. All you owe to the book is the spirit.

Many pass for saints on earth whose souls are in hell.

I'm not from the arts, I'm a law professor. But I think we need more poetry in politics.